Smallville and Supernatural Season Finales - A Discussion

Did you catch last night's season finales of two of the best shows on TV (Smallville and Supernatural)?

Well, let's get right into it:

First of all, Smallville is officially over next season, and as much as I love this show, I am thankful. TV shows have a shelf-life of sorts, even if they aren't based on some trend or fad. While Superman is eternal and Smallville was a good adaptation, it has run its course. Eight years is a respectable run for any show and the lack of enthusiasm amongst the cast and crew was becoming apparent around season five. This year was flat-out doldrums.

Not only were no stories advanced (it was one "one-shot" after another), last season left us with such a great cliffhanger and so many loose-ends you couldn't wait to see tied-up, but when the show returned, 99.8% of them were glossed-over and treated as though they had never happened. Further, the best thing that could have happened - Bizarro - was completely fumbled!

The problem with Smallville is its own "cool factor." What began as an "updating" of the Superman mythos - to make the show more appealing to non-comics fans and make Supes "hip" again (the comics industry was in a horrible slump when Smallville premiered) - devolved into a list of "too cool to do" rules. They decided they would never have him in costume, then I guess they decided that Bizarro talking like Bizarro wasn't cool, and on and on and the whole show has suffered immensely because of it. It has not remained true to the source material and is too cool to throw caution to the wind and be a show about a superhero instead of a story about a farmboy who has superhero powers. I mean, of all the comics characters, Superman is a superhero - not a "guy with powers." He is Captain Boy Scout - a god on Earth, Earth's savior.

So at the end of last night's episode, Supes and Lex were buried beneath the rubble of the Fortress of Solitude... except that's pretty much how last season ended and, like I said, when it returned, it was handled as though none of it even happened. Needless to say, I wasn't too excited and am not going to sit around like I did all last summer, anticipating its return. At this point, it's fun to watch just because everyone's so damn hot.

Bizarro not talking like Bizarro talks isn't Bizarro and that really killed Smallville for me.

But Supernatural... man! Easily the best show on TV right now - far and away, hands-down, no contest. I mean, it's got it all: super-hot leads, killer backstory, great episodes, cutting-edge SFX and cinematography, brilliant writing and acting, humor, pathos, drama, action, horror, violence, explosions, sex, sexy people doing sexy things... just too damn good a show!

That being said, I expected a lot more than it delivered last night. Last year ended with the kind of cliffhanger that made you have to see the opener; this year was more about tying-up ongoing storylines than anything else - and it didn't even do a good job with that! Dean still ended up in Hell, we don't know what happened to Bela, Lilith is still on the loose, Sam's status as Demon-King or psychic is still up in the air, and Ruby's status is now unknown. These may all sound like "hooks," but they really weren't presented that way; like I said, this ender didn't really answer any questions, nor did it present any new ones - pretty predictable and far from satisfying.

Still, Supernatural doesn't have to do anything to keep us watching by this point; no one should ever miss an episode of this show. It is the best thing on TV.

Both Smallville and Supernatural suffered slightly from the writers' strike, but it didn't kill either. Both handled it differently, with Smallville acting like last season never happened and Supernatural presenting a bunch of isolated stories that had little, if any, effect on the overarching story. Interestingly, Smallville and Supernatural present the two extremes of the continuity debate, with the former having almost none and the latter maintaining a very tight continuity. Of course, Smallville is based on a comic book and Supernatural has spawned several popular mini-series.

But both are strong shows and while Smallville is heading into its final season, I sincerely hope Supernatural is just getting started! Most shows' middle seasons are their best - that point where they've hit their stride but things are still fresh enough to be exciting - and Supernatural has a great opportunity to explore the whole Hell concept central to it. They did a bang-up job extrapolating on their own mythos this season, particularly with the episode where Dean was trapped with the demoness, and they can always stand a few one-offs that have no real effect on the major story just to hop-out of that package once in a while and keep things fun (I'd love to see a Supernatural Bigfoot hunt or get some idea of how UFOs fit into their whole universe), so as long as they keep the creative team they have and don't get burned-out, Supernatural could be around for a while yet.

And then we'll get the movie. A Supernatural movie would rock harder than a Dethklok concert at 90,000 feet.

© C Harris Lynn, 2008